


Cleared For Duty

by lha



Series: The Hippocratic Oath [3]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Doctors & Physicians, Episode: s01e05 Choose Your Pain, Gen, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 17:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12686709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lha/pseuds/lha
Summary: Set at the end of Choose Your Pain and between when Lorca & Tyler arrive back on Discovery and Saru goes to visit Burnham.Gabriel Lorca has made it back to his own ship but no one will tell him what's been going on in his absence.





	Cleared For Duty

The ship went to black alert and Gabriel felt the now familiar sensation of the spore drive in action. His thoughts were already on the bridge, even when he was talking to Tyler about getting him to sickbay. The pair of them made it about three metres down the corridor before Doctor T’Pel and a medical response team met them. He allowed them to take the Lieutenant’s weight from over his shoulder and drifted back as they focussed on the obviously injured man. 

“Captain,” T’Pel said, “you will accompany us to sickbay.”

“I need to go to the bridge, I’ll…”

“You will come with us now Captain. Everything will wait until after you have been examined and cleared for duty.” Gabriel didn’t know exactly how long he’d been gone but wasn’t really surprised that it was long enough that he’d been automatically removed from duty. Realising that he wasn’t going to be able to intimidate his Vulcan CMO, he took the path of least resistance and allowed himself to be ushered along with them. 

Now that his adrenaline was beginning to wane, the various bruises and scrapes that Gabriel had picked up were making themselves known, to say nothing of the pounding behind his eyes. Even after the clamps had been released and the damned lights switched off, bright white distortions had marred the centre of his vision, but the low lighting on the Klingon vessel had been a blessing. Discovery was in night mode but even so, it felt far too bright and the lack of contrast was making it harder for him to see clearly as well as increasing the pain in his head. Reaching out, Gabriel touched the bulkhead to try and ground himself as suddenly the deck felt less stable than it should. He knew it had been too long since he’d eaten or drunk, that this was probably a natural reaction to finally being out of danger but he would be damned if he was going to give in now.

“Captain Lorca?” The voice of the medic was far closer than he could understand and it was only by a fraction of a second that he managed to suppress his instinct to flatten her, to a twitch. “Here,” she took a firm hold of his arm, “will you manage?”

“I’m fine, let’s just get this over with,” he said through gritted teeth and allowed her to help steer him along. 

The short trip to sickbay had never felt so long; he barked his shin on the edge of the anti-grav stretcher that Tyler had been loaded onto as they entered the turbolift, and it was only thanks to the young medic who he was almost certain was Crewman Jones that he managed to stay upright. Shaking himself internally, he tried to focus on the chatter of the medics who were treating the Lieutenant and resisted the urge to screw his eyes shut. He’d been through worse, this was nothing but tiredness and pain both of which he knew the cure for and neither of which he was going to allow them to bench him for. He needed to find out what the cost of his rescue had been, what developments there had been in his absence and then he had to figure out how he could get Discovery back to the front line. 

While he understood that clean and bright had long been associated with medicine and for good reason, Gabriel had always felt that the luminescence of Discovery’s sickbay was entirely unnecessary. Today, the change in lighting as they stepped into the medical bay was enough to rob him of what was left of his vision. The white out was so unnerving that he froze and even the searing burn exploding out from his eyes took a moment to register. With the pain, the rest of the world around him rushed back with a wave;

“Hold him down,” called Culber’s tense voice over some sort of maniacal laughter, “no we can’t sedate him until we’ve got proper readings. What the hell were you thinking?!”

“This way Captain,” Jones instructed, steering him gently over to the side and presumably in the direction of a biobed. There was so much activity going on, so many voices now that he was struggling to make out what was happening. He wanted desperately to see what and who it was that they were treating but couldn’t even bring himself to open his eyes a sliver. Jones helped him sit up onto the bed before moving his legs round so that he had little choice but to lean back against the raised bedhead. Despite everything, Gabriel didn’t think he’d realised quite how tired he’d been until he’d no longer had to keep himself upright. Even once he’d settled though, his head felt as though he were still moving and his stomach lurched in sympathy. He lay still, breathing carefully, his eyes screwed as tight as they would go and allowed the noise to wash over him. 

From the far side of the room he could make out Saru’s voice and a reference to the Tardigrade but he couldn’t follow the conversation. Then Doctor T’Pel’s calm tone cut straight through all the noise;

“Doctor Culber, please will you see to Lieutenant Tyler and the Captain, I will take care of Lieutenant Stamets.”

“I…” Culber protested. 

“This is not a matter for debate Doctor. Please see to your patients,” there was no anger but it was a clear order. “If it hasn’t already been done, can someone please raise Doctor James and ask her to report for duty immediately. Nurse please initiate…” Jones’ Welsh lilt interrupted his concentration;

“I’ve lowered the lighting at this end of the room and I’m just going to get some readings for Doctor Culber so we can get you some pain killers.” 

“Patient Status?” Culber asked from the far side of the room, and another medic gave Tyler’s name and reeled off a series of figures and terms. Gabriel couldn’t remember the medic’s name, which wasn’t really acceptable. His crew wasn’t so big that he shouldn’t know their names. _Abiola? Adeola? Ademola! ___

__“... moderate dehydration, electrolytes are way out. Intermittent altered episodes,”_ _

__“I’m not altered I’m tired,” he injected._ _

__“I don’t like this,” Culber’s tone was flat and it sounded like he was pointing at something, “start fluids, I want to front load with 20ccs standard rehydration compound and a double dose of his standard analgesic.” The doctor sounded off, it wasn’t like Culber not to have acknowledged him especially given that no-one was bleeding out. They moved away and he heard the distinctive sound of Saru’s booted hoofs on the deck._ _

__“Commander,” he called out, managing to open his eyes just enough to establish that the lowered lights were not quite so blinding and that shapes at least were beginning to return._ _

__“Captain, I’m very pleased to have you back on board.”_ _

__“And I’m glad to be here. Now, would you care to tell me what the hell is going on?” Gabriel waited, trying to look commanding._ _

__“No. Absolutely not,” Culber called from where he was next to another bed on the opposite side of the room, turning and storming back over. “You,” he pointed forcefully at Saru, his anger barely contained, “are leaving now, Commander. No, don’t even open your mouth. Please, just… out.” The fact that his ever proper First Officer only inclined his head and left, once again indicated that something was wrong._ _

__“Would _you _like to explain what’s going on to me, Doctor?” he asked, his exasperation showing.___ _

____“No.” The confrontational edge had gone which implied that it was Saru he had been angry with. “You haven’t been cleared for duty, and right now you need to lie there and do what you’re told. Jones, let’s lower the lights another 20 percent and I want to see a full spectrum of scans of the optic nerve once he’s had the painkillers.”_ _ _ _

____“I’m perfectly capable of listening to a status update.”_ _ _ _

____“Try that again when you can focus, your blood pressure isn’t critically low and you’ve been debriefed. Now, I need to go look after this new Lieutenant you’ve arrived with, but I’m telling you now - if you try and talk your way out of here, you will have to come and see us every time you want as much as a basic analgesic. Is that understood?” Gabriel might have tried to stare him down, but his blinks had been getting progressively longer and he just couldn’t force his eyes open for long enough._ _ _ _

____“Aye aye, Doctor.”_ _ _ _

____“Good decision,” Culber said, much more softly and the last thing Gabriel was aware of was the sound of a hypospray._ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Well, it's been a few days since I had Lorca in sickbay so...
> 
> Hope you've enjoyed and thanks for all of your previous comments - they make me unreasonably happy, which in turn it transpires encourages me to write more angst.
> 
> Drop me a note here or on twitter @LHA_again


End file.
